Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning for Programmers

Chapter 8Alive! Create Artificial Life

In the previous chapter, you made an abstract bee colony and used a fitness function to guide the bees’ movement. The bees remembered the best places they had visited, and they communicated these places with the other bees by performing a waggle dance. This encoded information-sharing between agents, encouraging them to learn. In the end, the bees swarmed out of the paper bag when they all found food outside.

Now, imagine cells on a grid, some of which are in a paper bag. If a cell gets crowded, it dies; however, when certain conditions are met, a cell remains alive or even comes to life. These live cells can form a stable shape, or cycle through states, making patterns. You’ll see this as you play with ...